diff --git a/.github/workflows/pr_code_check.yaml b/.github/workflows/pr_code_check.yaml
index 285e5228..9ed87684 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/pr_code_check.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/pr_code_check.yaml
@@ -3,9 +3,11 @@ name: PR code review
 on:
   workflow_dispatch:
   pull_request:
+    branches:
+      - pybind11
   push:
     branches:
-      - master
+      - pybind11
 
 concurrency:
   group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
@@ -44,6 +46,5 @@ jobs:
     - name: Build and install
       run: pip install --verbose .
 
-    - name: Test
-      run: python tests/test.py
-
+    - name: Smoke test
+      run: python -c "import os, tempfile; os.chdir(tempfile.gettempdir()); import easygraph as eg; G = eg.Graph(); G.add_edge(1, 2); assert G.number_of_nodes() == 2; assert G.number_of_edges() == 1"
diff --git a/.github/workflows/pre-commit.yaml b/.github/workflows/pre-commit.yaml
index e6cad41c..dfffd269 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/pre-commit.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/pre-commit.yaml
@@ -1,17 +1,38 @@
 name: pre-commit
 
 on:
+  workflow_dispatch:
   pull_request:
+    branches:
+      - pybind11
   push:
+    branches:
+      - pybind11
 
 jobs:
   pre-commit:
     runs-on: ubuntu-22.04
     steps:
-    - uses: actions/checkout@v3
-    - uses: actions/setup-python@v4
+    - uses: actions/checkout@v4
       with:
-        python-version: '3.10'
-    - uses: pre-commit/action@v3.0.0
+        fetch-depth: 0
+
+    - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
       with:
-        extra_args: "--all-files"
\ No newline at end of file
+        python-version: '3.10'
+
+    - name: Install pre-commit
+      run: python -m pip install pre-commit
+
+    - name: Run pre-commit on changed files
+      shell: bash
+      run: |
+        if [[ "${{ github.event_name }}" == "pull_request" ]]; then
+          base_ref="${{ github.event.pull_request.base.sha }}"
+        elif [[ -n "${{ github.event.before }}" && ! "${{ github.event.before }}" =~ ^0+$ ]]; then
+          base_ref="${{ github.event.before }}"
+        else
+          base_ref="$(git rev-parse HEAD~1)"
+        fi
+
+        pre-commit run --show-diff-on-failure --color=always --from-ref "$base_ref" --to-ref "${{ github.sha }}"
diff --git a/.github/workflows/test.yaml b/.github/workflows/test.yaml
index 7b3ab9b9..33ff4187 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/test.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/test.yaml
@@ -1,6 +1,13 @@
 name: Test the package with pytest
 
-on: [push, pull_request, workflow_dispatch]
+on:
+  workflow_dispatch:
+  pull_request:
+    branches:
+      - pybind11
+  push:
+    branches:
+      - pybind11
 
 jobs:
   pytest:
@@ -12,12 +19,12 @@ jobs:
         # ubuntu 22.04 has deprecated python 3.6
         python-version: [ "3.8", "3.9", "3.10","3.11", "3.12"]
     steps:
-      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
         with:
           submodules: recursive
 
       - name: Set up Python ${{ matrix.python-version }}
-        uses: actions/setup-python@v4
+        uses: actions/setup-python@v5
         with:
           python-version: ${{ matrix.python-version }}
 
@@ -36,4 +43,4 @@ jobs:
 
       - name: Test with pytest
         run: |
-          pytest --disable-warnings --ignore=cpp_easygraph
+          pytest easygraph --disable-warnings
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index f4262b0f..9498e69b 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -47,6 +47,9 @@ def build_extension(self, ext: CMakeExtension) -> None:
         cmake_args = [
             f"-DCMAKE_LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY={extdir}{os.sep}",
             f"-DPYTHON_EXECUTABLE={sys.executable}",
+            f"-DPython_EXECUTABLE={sys.executable}",
+            f"-DPython3_EXECUTABLE={sys.executable}",
+            "-DPYBIND11_FINDPYTHON=ON",
             f"-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE={cfg}",  # not used on MSVC, but no harm
             f"-DEASYGRAPH_ENABLE_GPU={'ON' if enable_gpu else 'OFF'}",
         ]